Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep dave, you need a bell siphon and a RSG filter (with activated charcoal)


Wash the gravel and sing-a-long with Steve and I

les / JP, you wanna do a sticky thread under hardware on the contruction of a RSG filter?

That way it will be a nice easy reference post for people

Hi GF,
I planted seeds in the outside grow bed just this weekend. I'm hoping that some plants can get going soon enough that they can deal with the nitrates so that I can fatten them up and eat them before say the end of Nov.

Swishing around the fish net does a good job of filtering out the poo. I am going to get a big aquarium net and place that under the drain to catch the solids and dump them in the grow bed daily.

Bought a couple 8" aquarium nets, will mount one under the FT drain to catch poo. Will reverse it to put the poo in the water that is carried upstairs daily.

My little helper played gardener yesterday with his shovel and moved all the gravel around, hopefully the seeds will still be able to sprout.

Talked to BIL yesterday about settlings and flocculation. He works for the water dept.

Don't want to pinch Janet's good work but she can use my special recipe I wrote

After reading the RSG construction post I added activated charcoal (from the freecycled aquarium score) to the sand planter. I also set it on top of the crushed shell net basket so that hopefully the rim will become exposed and underwater from time to time to drain the water out of the planter. I may direct water on top of it.

It would be an interesting experiment to "park" high nitrate water in a barrel for a awhile to see how fast the nitrates can go down.

Take one for the team, Dave!

I may have no choice, as the plant operation will be slow as things get colder. The lettuce seeds have sprouted. It is nice to have the RSG filter as an option!

Had some luck today with nested net baskets with gravel in between as a solids filter at the sump drain. Tonight I pulled the basket out, dumped the gravel in a bucket, dumped a bit of water on it, twisted the bucket around, and dumped the poo into another bucket. The gravel was clean after about three rinses, then I put the net basket back together. If the last couple days are an indication, it will be ready to be rinsed out almost every day. I hope to have the solids under control this way.

Note the lazy RSG filter under the solids basket.

How are your nitrate levels going DD.... is there a measurable correllation to the solids removal?

I don't have a nitrates test Rope, next time I'm near the pet store I'll be sure to get one. I have a strip test but it has always been maxed out.

The heat exchanger and outside plant operation has always assumed I wouldn't be pumping solids through, just clear piss-yellow water, so removing solids to the upstairs is a necessary procedure anyways...

Be interesting to be able to quantify it's effect...

Working on the theory that it's the breakdown of solids in the growbeds that supplies a proportion of material for nitrate product... hence plat growth....

I'd be curious how much nitrate production is derived from the solids as opposed to taht derived from the actual nutrients in the water...

I would expect the supply of trace elements to be significantly reduced due to solids removal... as is seen inmany of the commercial operations, but similarly.... most of the commercial operations seem to produce the majority of plant growth just from the nurients in the water....

I should post my proof... And C1 can be a witness. I have massive silverbeet, spinach and italian parsley growing in my system. They have grown to that size in the last 2 months. The only thing is... I only have 5 (4cm) goldfish and 6 small marron. The only possible explanation is the breakdown of the solids from when I had the trout in there (I gave them a better home), which was 4 months ago.

If your tests are maxing out, try testing with a sample of 50% tank water and 50% distilled water (or other water that has been confirmed to have 0 nitrate). Then multiply the result by 2. If that's still maxed out, try different dilutions until you get a color you can read. For a while (before RSG), I was testing samples with 10% tank water, 90% distilled. It was that bad. On the drops-n-test-tube kits, I can't distinguish any color over 40 anyway.

Yep, I'll get back to you when I have a kit - it's a certainty that the test will need to be diluted to know.

Rope, I'm not throwing the solids away I'm relocating them into the grow bed above ground. I'm not growing plants in the basement anymore. I'm trying to use the goodness from the system but want to clean out the fish water as much as possible (the poor dears). Removing the solids after the fish are done with them has to help on the ammonia etc. front.

Another homework assignment (still working on the drip vs strip homework assignment JP) would be to put straight fish food in a mini-setup and see how well the plants can grow on fish food directly. That is the ultimate input after all. I'm seeing how inefficient a tilapia's gut is first-hand in my setup ATM. Seriously thinking about going back to the mill and getting the less fatty food.